A genre of music that incorporates hiphop, decks and digital sound to metal music. Not to be confused with thrash or industrial, NuMetal bands tend to be more commercial than their underground counterparts and attract a certain subculture too.

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A much-hated subgenre of metal or hard rock, depending on how you view it, that started in the early 90s.

The main characteristics of nu-metal are as follows:
1. Rather short, simplistic songs with some sort of pop hooks
2. Lyrics about personal issues and feelings
3. Lack of guitar solos (if any solos are present, they are usually ahort or not very complex)
4. Many bands take in some elements of funk and rap and mix it with heavy metalmusic (early Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Korn, etc.)
5. Music which places more emphasis on lyrical meaning and image than technicality

While I agree that some nu-metal out there is quite terrible, a lot of nu-metal out there is hated for the wrong reasons. Some peoplehate it just because it's popular, some people hate it just because it has no solos, or some people hate it just because the lyrics are somewhat more emotional than lyrics of old-school metal.

Hating a band just because it's popular is like refusing to play a sport like, say, football, just because a lot of people love it. "No way, man! I'm TOTALEE underground and kvlt. I should not be doing any shit that more than 2 people are a part of. I must be DIFFERENT!1!" Honestly, no one cares if you're a rebel. No one is going to praise you or follow in your footsteps. Why must you try so hard to be different?

It's also pathetic to hate a song just because of the lack of technicality. "Ooo, look at me! I'm generic tr00 metal guitarist #628! I can wank off on a guitar and hit 6489789704 notes per second!!! I am so tr00 metal." Face it, some artists like Yngwie Malmsteen and Dragonforce may have a lot of skill and speed on guitar, but a lot of their songs get old REALLY fast. Speed does not always equal talent. There's more to songwriting than making sure that every song has more than 10,000 notes in it, and if you can't understand that, then you obviously know nothing about music.

Also, what's wrong with emotional lyrics? Even "real metal" bands like Megadeth and Dream Theater bring lots of emotion into their songs (Megadeth - Trust, or Dream Theater - The Glass Prison), but are they hated for that? No. Why should nu-metal be any different? It's sometimes pointless and dumb to write every song about randomevilcrap like Slayer just to prove how much of a "tough guy" you are. Everyone has feelings. Some people want to express them. Deal with it.

So, now that that's out of the way, once again, I'll agree with most of you that some nu-metal out there is definitely a false type of metal that's made just for money or mass appeal. These bands should be burned alive along with their music collections if they won't learn to make real music. But you should also know that some nu-metal out there can be really good. Don't just hate a whole genre to be "rebellious" and "different."

nu-metal hater #1: Man all nu-metal sucks! It's a bunch of guys with no instrumental talent making songs about their feelings that nobody cares about!! You should listen to REAL metal like (insert 80s bands here) because they make songs about Satan and play a billion notes per second!!

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A form of hard rock, that started in the early 1990s, with such bands as Korn. Contrary to popular belief, Nu Metal is not actuualy a Metal style, because it evolved from hardcore, which in turn evolved from punk, and not metal.
Nu Metal is closely related to rapcore.

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A new subgenre of metal which includes bands such as Korn, Slipknot, Disturbed, and various others from the late 80's to today.

Is often bashed and heavily criticized by "true metal fans" for being "mainstream", or for having "no talent"

These guys are just introducing a new metal sound, guys. Get over it. Many people like it, and that's why it became mainstream. I might not like some of the bands, but I don't call them "fake" because of that. They're just as much metal as Metallica or Slayer are, and just because they sound different doesn't mean they suck. It sure would be boring if all bands sounded the same, don't you think?

I like all kinds of metal - power, thrash, progressive, and even nu. Here are some examples: I like Slipknot but I don't like Slayer. I like Children of Bodom but I don't like Korn.

It's still that metal I know and love, so I listen to it. If I don't like a band, I just don't listen to it. I don't come here and call them fake. If I wanted to complain, I'd at least give good reasons for my complaint.

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I don't really know what's wrong with those people that hate nu-metal and nu-metal bands. Apart from LP, I don't listen to genres or artists, I listen to _songs_. Damn, if I hear a catchy melody in a Britney Spears song, I'd like it, still knowing Britney is a bitch. So you lame-asses stop whining, take off your f***in' poser masks, and listen to whatevermusic that you like. And, you could try looking at the lyrics of nu-metal.

Look at the "broken love"/other themes ratio of most genres. For pop, it's 90/10, for example, 80/20 goes for emo, hip-hop has almost no love, but that's another thing. You see, nu-metal DOES have love songs, but they are different from the masses, and the ratio is something like 40/60.

And why should people blame nu-metal for being mainstream-friendly? Why, in fact, is being "mainstream-freindly" bad? The mainstream is what most people currently like, and, even when its fashion goes away, there would people still listening to it.

And, who cares what kind of people are the musicians? Probably most famous classic music composers were mean bastards, but their music is still remembered. The Beatles were dope-heads, but they still are great. Understand it, nobody cares if Fred Durst is a poser. If you like LB, you like it. And if you don't, you don't.

So stop f***ing around and don't forget that music is made for people to have fun, not to argue. K?

There was this really good example here, it was like, "dude listen to this" - "it rocks, what is it?" - "korn" - "it sucks". If you like some music, listen to it, dammit! Enough hipocrisy.